Develop Reference

WPF Live-Regions just for Narrator?

I have a textblock (ContentTextBlock) with AutomationProperties.LiveSettings="Assertive". I'm just testing and checking how useful this feature is. And... am disappointed so far.
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
ContentTextBlock.Text += " test";
var peer = UIElementAutomationPeer.FromElement(ContentTextBlock);
if(peer == null)
{
peer = UIElementAutomationPeer.CreatePeerForElement(ContentTextBlock);
peer.RaiseAutomationEvent(AutomationEvents.LiveRegionChanged);
}
peer.RaiseAutomationEvent(AutomationEvents.LiveRegionChanged);
}
When using Narrator, this works as advertised. Whenever clicking the button, Narrator announces the TextBlock text ("test" "test test" "test test test")... But when I use NVDA or JAWS, nothing happens, although the screenreader versions are relatively up-to-date. Did they really not add any support for live-regions or am I just missing an important point?

Whilst I didn't manage to get live regions to work, I found another workaround:
Tolk by Davy Kager
Tolk is a library which can, among oterrs
Detect which supported screen reader, if any, is running
Pass strings to the screen reader's speech engine and braille.
Also has support for SAPI
To include Tolk in your C# project, download it from the link above, then include tolk.cs (from src/dotnet) in your project, and place tolk.dll (it's found in bin) in the folder with your executable (or somewhere in the PATH variable). Make sure that the dll version matches your CPU target (x86/x64). Do the same for the dlls in the lib directory. Then you can use it according to the code found in the examples folder.
PS. Tolk works on Win 7 as well, so that's a bonus. The live-regions of WPF were only supported from Win 8 on.

Cannot add icon in shell extension with C#

I've found a very nice tutorial and i am trying to understand something that is not in this tutorial (because the tut itself works fine)
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/9163/File-Rating-a-practical-example-of-shell-extension
When you look at applications like WinRar, TortoiseSVN, Antivirus-apps and many more, there is an icon next to the Shell Extension Item.
I would like to know how this is done. (Programmatically with C#)
Adding a separator works, adding a submenu works and click+action also works, but i'm struggling with the icon. This cannot be so hard. Can somebody help me?
And please don't say that Microsoft doesn't longer support this in .NET 4.0, because it is not guaranteed and therefore they don't supply samplecode. If all those other apps can do it, then it is possible.
Please supply me some sample code, some tutorials or maybe even a working piece of code.

Please have a look at the following article, it uses .NET 4.0 it to create Windows Shell Extensions using the SharpShell nuget package.
NET Shell Extensions - Shell Context Menus
Using this library, you can set the image directly while creating the contextmenustrip as shown below
protected override ContextMenuStrip CreateMenu()
{
// Create the menu strip.
var menu = new ContextMenuStrip();
// Create a 'count lines' item.
var itemCountLines = new ToolStripMenuItem
{
Text = "Count Lines...",
Image = Properties.Resources.CountLines
};
// When we click, we'll count the lines.
itemCountLines.Click += (sender, args) => CountLines();
// Add the item to the context menu.
menu.Items.Add(itemCountLines);
// Return the menu.
return menu;
}

You only have to add to the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
and here is the code:
string TimeStamp = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");
string key = "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Classes\\*\\shellex\\ContextMenuHandlers\\Winrar";
string valueName = "MyWinrar";
Microsoft.Win32.Registry.SetValue(key, valueName, HERE WHAT YOU WANT TO START, Microsoft.Win32.RegistryValueKind.String);
i hope it works for you!

All the apps you listed use COM and unmanaged code to create overlay icon handlers. There is even a special project TortoiseOverlays that provides a common library for drawing icons for TortoiceCSV, TortoiseSVN and TortoiseGIT. You can take a look at it's source code to find out how it is done. If you want to draw similar icons, you should probably just reuse it.
Using .Net for this type of extensions is not recommended, because when multiple extensions, built against different .Net versions would attempt to load in explorer process, they will crash the explorer.

Hyperlink to a local file doesn't work

I need to add 2 type of links to existing report with c#. For exapmle:
1) http://www.google.co.il/
2) file:///C:/index.html
I added the links, but only the "http://" works. when I press the link of "file:///" nothing happens.
I've uploaded the full project (very small though) which includes the problem:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/452gsoyymalv/n/ObjectReports.zip
BTW, the "index.html" is a simple 'helloWorld' which loaded successfully when writing the path on the address bar in the browser.
Do anyone knows what additional settings should be set to make the file link work?
*Credit for the sample (without my case):
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/mahesh/reportviewerobject04172007111636am/reportviewerobject.aspx

AFAIK this is disabled for security reasons - the ReportViewer is NOT a complete browser...
You can try to circumvent that limitation by handling ReportViewer.Hyperlink event yourself... can't try it myself right now, but that's about the only option that can possibly work IMHO...

This is the detailed solution (main idea suggested by #Yahia):
First, I created the event handler:
public void HyperLinkReportHandler(Object sender, HyperlinkEventArgs e)
{
Process.Start(e.Hyperlink);
}
Second, I associated the event handler:
this.rvContainer.Hyperlink += HyperLinkReportHandler;

Open Office Communicator Session from C#

I am working on a WPF application and I wish to open sip:Username#company.com links. I am able to open mailto links using the following code:
private void btnSendEmail_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
try
{
string mailURL = String.Format("mailto:{0}", UserDetails.EmailAddress);
Process.Start(mailURL);
Close();
}
catch
{
// Handle exception
}
}
Although, I am unable to open sip: links in a similar way. What I am trying to achieve is to open a new chat session with a user, like I am able to do when I follow sip: links from Outlook.
Any ideas?
Edit: I ended up using the CommunicatorAPI. Messenger.InstantMessage() seems to work for me. More info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787232.aspx

Using Process.Start works fine on my system (with Microsoft Lync 2010, a newer version of Communicator):
void Main()
{
Process.Start("sip:username#company.com");
}
Running the above code results in a new chat window opening. The only exception is when I enter my own user name, in which it starts composing a new Outlook e-mail message to myself. What happens when you use this (maybe also try omitting the following call to Close).

You probably need to associate a program with the "sip" uri scheme. Try this: how do I create my own URL protocol? (e.g. so://...)

if you have Lync or Office Communicator installed, they should respond appropriately to the sip: uri scheme. Also, tel:, callto: etc. For reference, the full list is here.
Is this not working for you from a WPF app? Does it work for you from a basic html page?

I ended up using the CommunicatorAPI. Messenger.InstantMessage() seems to work for me. More info here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787232.aspx

The following code probably didn't work for you because you were trying to IM yourself.
Process.Start("sip:username#company.com");

facebooktoolkit and C# photo upload problem

I need help with integrating facebook into my desktop application. It's developed with C# - target framework is .NET framework 4.0.
I'm using http://facebooktoolkit.codeplex.com/
The problem is that I can't get the users albums although my app has permission for it, and for all to be more confusing I can get statuses, comments, friends, etc.
I have this in designer:
this.fbMyApp = new Facebook.Winforms.Components.FacebookService(this.components);
this.fbMyApp.ApplicationKey = "myappkey_goes_here";
this.fbMyApp.SessionKey = null;
this.fbMyApp.uid = ((long)(0));
And I've used this code(I've set all permissions for testing purposes):
fbMyApp.ConnectToFacebook(new List<Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions>() {
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.create_event,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.create_note,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.email,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.offline_access,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.photo_upload,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.publish_stream,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.read_mailbox,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.read_stream,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.rsvp_event,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.share_item,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.sms,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.status_update,
Facebook.Schema.Enums.ExtendedPermissions.video_upload
});
Now if I do this(after user has logged in):
MessageBox.Show("TOTAL statuses: " + fbMyApp.Status.Get().Count.ToString());
I will get the number of user statuses, and could read them. However if I do this:
MessageBox.Show("TOTAL albums: " + fbMyApp.Photos.GetAlbums().Count.ToString());
I get zero, although user has about 10 albums. I need this, cause this way I can access the album IDs and could be able to upload a photo to specific album. Any idea why this isn't working or does anybody have any better suggestion for some facebook toolkit for C#?

You need to request "user_photos" permissions from Facebook. I haven't used this toolkit as I prefer to make simple graph rest calls dynamically instead of having a huge library. I imagine you could download the source and recompile it, adding the missing permission. You could also switch to this library which is alot more up to date with current Facebook functionality.